Study casts doubt on link between cannabis, teen IQ drop

Defense of dope smoking brings out epidemiological skeptics. And why wouldn’t these criticisms also be true for the lead-IQ claims?

“A landmark study suggesting a link between cannabis use and a drop in teenage IQ may not have gone far enough in its research, with any falls in IQ more likely due to lower socioeconomic status than marijuana, according to a Norwegian study.” [Reuters]

The lead-IQ link drives me nuts. As I understand it, children with higher lead loads in their teeth had lower IQ’s – about 5 points. We know from prison populations that aggression is inversely related to IQ. The data can be explained that aggressive children have lower IQ and are more likely to chew on a lead painted window sill.

Tobacco and cannabis are both bad for you, but tobacco does not make the user feel as good as cannabis. Tobacco is being marginalized and may someday be banned completely, but cannabis is being mainstreamed, and its use may soon become acceptable in public and even indoors.
Nobody’s talking about the studies on second-hand pot smoke.
The PC key seems to be how the user feels about it.
Maybe it’s time to reintroduce defrutum – that sweet ‘natural’ non-alcoholic concoction prepared by boiling down organic grape juice using lead pots, so it can acquire the additional sweetness of ‘sugar of lead’ (lead acetate).